Get Down to It

One of the main reasons for bunking workouts is the fact that we have made ourselves completely dependent on machines to provide adrenaline. Machines do help. Among the other things, they provide variety and give you an estimate of many calories you are burning. But you’ve got to look at it this way too – the fewer the exercise accessories, the smaller the chances of your backing out.  That’s because you can’t escape with lame excuses like- “There is something wrong with the stepper today” or “It’s raining and my car might get stuck on the way to the gym!” A back-to-basics workout would just need a room and you.

If we can go gaga over natural foods, natural lifestyles, natural fibres, we can surely plan out natural exercise routine too. After all, your body is the most remarkable machine ever made. It has solution within itself if you are willing to scout around for them.

Here are three back-to-basics workouts that are completely do-able sans any gadget.

• Walking: Walking is easily the safest and one of the most effective modes of exercising. It is suitable for all age groups and can be done alone on in company. However, without the treadmill to galmorise it, walking is sometimes considered staid. The way to solve this perception is to energise it. You have to push yourself, lunge forward, and make your hands play a more active role by flailing them too. If you think walking outdoor sometimes depends on weather conditions then you can walk inside your house from front door through passages and back to front door. When you need to walk, walk briskly to and fro. After having gained enough stamina from it, try jogging. This would translate into the number of calories lost being more than doubled.

• Isometric Exercises: Isometric exercises are those in which a force is applied to a resistant object. In this sense, it has certain elements of strength training. A lot of isometric exercises would require the use of exercise equipment, but you can include certain aspects of the discipline for your hands-off machine routine too. One of the most basic isometric routines would be to push against a wall. There’s no actual movement here, but the tension that builds up in the muscles increases their strength. We must maintain each position for six to eight seconds and it should be repeated about five to ten times, each time ensuring maximum muscular contraction.

• Pilates: Like isometric exercises, Pilates too, is used for deep body conditioning and to strengthen the body’s core muscles. Quite like the former, it sometimes requires a lot tools to work with. That however, shouldn’t stop you from using aspects of it in your back-to-basics workout. But take care of one thing, you have to do it just right. It’s better to have a trainer with you when you are doing Pilates. Pilates helps develop strong muscles, a flat stomach and a strong back, also improves posture.